Rating: 
Summary: excellent read for all networking enthusiast
Review: a very good book. very practical approach to explaining the topic. I would suggest this book to the beginners and is also a very good book for the experts.
Rating:
Summary: The right way to learn networking
Review: After taking two classes in computer networking, one using this book - with a top-down approach, another with the down-up book, I have to say Kurose's method is superior.
Kurose takes a well drafted course thorugh the often murky waters of networking, and explains to you how the services you know - the web, e-mail, FTP - work, so that as you progress you will have the ability to understand why the underlying protocols do what they need to do. You understand what is needed to make the Internet work and getting the general perspective first and delving deeper as you go is a great, and sadly unique, way of doing things.
An excellent book for those in school or those just interested in learning how networking works.
Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: As a software engineer, I read this book upon recommendation from some people at work. The book really put the whole computer networking / Internet /Web area together for me. Before reading the book, I was already familiar with Ethernet, the web, HTTP, etc., but the book tied it all together, and now I have a deep understanding of the subject. I have carefully read the first five chapters. I look forward to the last three. The other thing I really like about the book is its great companion web site.... Not only is the whole book online, but also it includes many useful applets that really let you see how these protocols work. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Move over Tanenbaum!!
Review: Contrasting this book w/ Tanenbaum's 'title-holder' for the best computer networking book out there, this book wins hands down. Tanenbaum's approach has always been VERY wordy in all his books. This book goes straight to the point, usually illustrating all concepts w/ an analogy, which is what I liked most about it, because it lays a pretty good foundation for grasping the technical concepts very easily and quickly. The website is also very good, with some fancy applets and interviews. This book has replaced Tanenbaum's in my university's networking class and all the students really prefer this book to Tanenbaum's, which is still great, but things are changing so quick now that you really need to learn stuff quickly. This you cant do w/ Tanenbaum, but you can do w/ Kurose-Ross. See for yourself!
Rating: 
Summary: Oversimplifies to point of sometimes being wrong
Review: For the most part, Kurose and Ross do a decent job of discussing networks and expanding your knowledge. However, some information they oversimplify to the point of being wrong. For instance, in their discussion of sequence number and acknowledgement generation they break down the TCP 3-way handshake and how data transfer impacts acks. Unfortunately, they fail on how FIN impacts these computations. There are more situations like this in the book, such as IP offsets. It is as if you were putting together a jigsaw puzzle. However, someone has trimmed some of the more intricate pieces, in an attempt to facilitate the puzzle being put together a little quicker. Unfortunately, this action has robbed you of some important details of the picture, and in the end it confuses the situation rather than bringing clarity.
Rating:
Summary: The best book on networking out there!
Review: I am a new graduate student who had already taken a networking course in my undergrad but, my foundation was very shaky. I never saw the big picture and as a result, I had developed a dislike for Networks. However, because of an approaching summer internship in a networking company, I had to take an undergard course in Networking to brush up my networking knowledge. Fortunately for me, the instructor followed this text. The course turned out to be the best course I ever took in my life, mainly thanks to the textbook. This book by Kurose and Ross is ABSOLUTELY fantastic. Not only am I now confident about the fundamentals but I can also see at a glance the whole field of networking with its rapidly expanding frontiers. I wish I had this textbook in my undergrad course. A word about the approach followed by the book - I always considered top-down approach to be the most natural way to learn a new topic. Indeed, what could be more natural than gradually going from the known to the unknown. The authors take you through a journey from the application layer consisting of the wonderful applications like WWW, email which we all use but whose inner workings we never knew. Assuming transpost layer services as given, the authors show you how these applications actually work. As soon as you understand this, you just can't stop wondering what is under the hood of the transport layer, i.e., what are the workings of the transport layer. And thus goes the wonderful journey across the various layers until you end at the link layer. And to top it all, the authors wrap up their book with a brilliant discussion of topics which deal with issues across all layers. These are the Multimedia Networking, Network Security and Network Management. I have found the book so wonderful that I have read it from the first to the last page. I have fell in love with the Networking field after reading this book that I am planning to change my thesis topic to Networking! To conclude, I believe that this book is the best introductory book on Networking. Go ahead and buy this book with full confidence. Believe me, you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Best written technical book I've read
Review: I am coming down to the wire on a Masters degree in Information Technology with about four classes to go. This is the best textbook I have used to date. It is organized in a manner that actually teaches. It is well written with clear concise use of technical terms. It has a good support system in quizzes on the web. I will be keeping this book for a reference for quite a while. The authors have done a great job.
Rating:
Summary: Best Networking book there is.
Review: I am student at the University of Massachusetts and I had James Kurose, the co-author of this book, as the professor for my computer networking class. Not only was the class excellent, but the book was also. Everything is explained very clearly and proficiently. The book is not math-based which makes it much easier reading and great as an introductory book. There are lots of concrete analogies and examples used in the book to help the reader understand the more complex concepts. Since taken the class I've read through computer networks by Andrew S. Tanenbaum and although that it is a good book I would not recommend it for those who are just being introduced to the world of networking.
The online supplementary content that comes with the book is also very beneficial and complement the book well.
Rating:
Summary: The best book on networking out there!
Review: I had a wonderful experience reading this book. Not only is Mr. Kurose a good writer but his teaching is excellent. I had the opportunity to take a class with Mr. Kurose using this book. The book breaks down the Internet/Networking into 4 layers ( did not use the application, session, and physical layers ) and explains them very well. Excellent examples! Well written. In addition to those 4 layers the book goes over security, multimedia, and network management. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about networking.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book
Review: I had a wonderful experience reading this book. Not only is Mr. Kurose a good writer but his teaching is excellent. I had the opportunity to take a class with Mr. Kurose using this book. The book breaks down the Internet/Networking into 4 layers ( did not use the application, session, and physical layers ) and explains them very well. Excellent examples! Well written. In addition to those 4 layers the book goes over security, multimedia, and network management. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about networking.
|
